All Palm Beach County congressional incumbents draw opposition

Gov. Charlie Crist’s decision to run for U.S. Senate as ano party candidate dominated Florida politics for weeks, but South Florida voters can expect hot congressional primaries in August and sizzlers in November.

Crist, like many other candidates, officially qualified as a candidate Friday morning, before the noon deadline for Senate, congressional and judicial candidates to secure spots in this year’s elections.

The other major Senate candidates – U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Miami, and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami – are also official. So are 21 others – most of whom nobody except their families have ever heard of.

Voters in the Broward-Palm Beach county 22nd Congressional District can expect one of the state’s most contentious contests, featuring U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, and Allen West, a Plantation Republican.

That’s the same choice voters had in 2008. West ran a short campaign that year and didn’t have much money. This year he started earlier and is competitive with Klein on fundraising. And Klein is running hard, taking nothing for granted.